I Scream, You Scream

We all scream for ... Ice cream???? On our second day at the school, before we even started teaching and were still learning the ropes with our predecessors, Dan & Karin, we were invited to an ice cream party at a local bakery that was owned by the parents of one of the kindergarten students. (As a side note, they do have bakeries here - with bread and pastries and cheese buns and bagels - it was surprising to see. This bakery is called Tous Les Jours, all in Western letters and French words, no Korean letters to be seen). Our trip included 5 teachers, 5 students and what we thought was an ice cream sundae. It turned out to be a Korean dessert called pepinsu and it was definitely not ice cream. In our sundae dish was crushed ice, condensed milk, red soy beans, whey powder, pineapple, corn, green melon, and jujubes. It was very bizarre, but a common Korean treat. The kids loved it, and we may have liked it a bit better if we stopped thinking that we were eating pineapple and corn together. It was edible though and maybe we'll acquire a taste for it.

These kindergarten kids though could not be cuter. Contrary to what I was expecting, I do have one kindergarten class, but I don't mind because it is the most fun and the 6 students I have are adorable. Jenn has 2 classes in the morning, each with 3 students and then another in the afternoon with 5 students. These kids are 5 or 6 years old, but in Canada would be 4 or 5. The difference is that Koreans are considered to be 1 on the day they are born and turn 2 on what we would consider to be their first birthday. Just a minor cultural difference - one of many that we are learning about.